New Wineskins 19 of 21 – Keep Fighting the Good Fight

Ask that the Holy Spirit give you encouragement to keep fighting the good fight:

Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble, intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained. Sanctification is the result of lifelong obedience. (AA 560-1)

Dear Heavenly Father,

It is so encouraging to know that You are willing to work with me my whole lifetime.  You are a patient and good Father who sees this child stumbling, falling, and sometimes rebelling, yet You don’t give up on me, but faithfully keep drawing me back to the principles of Your Kingdom, knowing that one day, in Your good timing, I will grow up!  You say that though “a righteous person falls seven times he will get up.”  Help me, Lord, to keep getting up, to put forth that persevering effort, to fight the fight, even on discouraging days when I see “nothing happening” in my life.

You say that whoever “walks the road” on the “Highway to Holiness,” “although a fool, shall not go astray.”  You tell me that “the weakest soul who abides in Christ is more than a match for the hosts of darkness.” Help me to abide in You today: to wait silently for You alone, to pour out my heart before You, for my expectation is from You, and to trust You at all times. Today, I want to die to self and live for You.  I thank You that You will fulfill Your promise to be my only Rock, my Salvation; my Defense; my Strength, and my Refuge, and that You will not allow me to be moved.

You know that I usually do not “dramatically” disobey You but sometimes am just not sensitive to Your leading in the small details of my life.  Make my entire being alert to Your promptings; make all my senses vigilant today.  I want to look to You and be saved.  I want to hear so my soul shall live, for Your name is like fragrant oil poured forth.  I want to taste and see that You are so, so good!  And Lord, if I may just touch the edge of Your garment, I shall be healed!

And most of all, because I invite the Holy Spirit to abide in my heart, and as I see the defects in my own character, help me to truly love, “to pity the weakness of others, to forgive” as I wish to be forgiven. Help me to be “pitiful, courteous, Christlike.”  May Your Holy Spirit give me His fruits of “love, joy, peace, strength, and consolation” that it will become in me “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

“Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law” for “I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.”  In the name of Your Son in whom I will abide today, Amen.

Choose either Psalm 42, 62, or 63; read and meditate on God’s graciousness and goodness toward You today.

Prov. 24:16; Is. 35:8; GC 530; Ps. 62:5-8; Osbeck, Amazing Grace (236); Is. 45:22; Is. 55:3; Song 1:3; Ps. 34:8; Matt. 9:21; FLB 53; John 4:14